With the successful release of a feature length film in December 2011, Japanese anime K-On! is enjoying broader popularity than ever before.

The release of the film was accompanied by waves of new merchandise and even a tie-up with convenience store Lawson.

Yet there is one product series in particular that has been gaining attention for seeming to challenge fans to prove their devotion and enthusiasm for K-On!: full color T-shirts designed with one of the main character’s face occupying the entire front side.

It’s custom in Japan to take off your shoes upon entering a house. This is done mostly to keep floors clean and in good condition, but also because socks and slippers are just more comfortable than shoes.

The Japanese are rather proud of this tradition and often have trouble understanding why people in other countries wouldn’t want to take off their shoes after going inside.

Japanese company Satoyama Socks suspects that many people may just not feel comfortable taking their shoes off while everyone else keeps theirs on.

So, everybody, what do you think when you see a girl’s armpit hair? Does it make a difference if she’s smoking hot? A lot of people would probably be surprised, and some of them might even reject her entirely over the matter.

Well, this has apparently become a big topic of conversation in China, where a pretty young woman bared her hairy pits to the world.Read More

There is a shopping wonderland where every item is only about a buck and you can buy pretty much any daily necessity and a whole lot of stuff you didn’t even know existed. This fabled place is the Japanese 100 yen shop, and it’s head and shoulders above the dingy dollar shops you know from home. You can even pick up a stylish cover to pimp your iPhone, with an unexpected abundance of styles and colors to satisfy even the most demanding fashion divas.

Of course, price is one thing, but quality is also going to be a major factor. Can decoration-loving fashionistas really buy with confidence? Can these cheap covers really protect our all-important iPhones? Rocket News decided to find out.Read More

What better to heat you up as the weather turns cold than some Babes from the North? Russian models have a reputation for knowing how to keep warm, but four-year-old model Kristina Pimenova is crushing hearts with her doll-like features and uber-cute poses.

Down, boy! Here, go chew on Nozomi Sasaki for another 15 years. She’s from the Russia of Japan (otherwise known as Akita Prefecture).

Recently on our Japanese site, we introduced a picture (above) uploaded to reddit of a young black male who had sits causally with his pants pulled up over his shoulders. The picture was a hit with our Japanese readers, who interpreted it as a herald of the end of koshipan—the Japanese word for ‘saggy pants,’ which is a portmanteau of hips (koshi) and pants (pantsu)—and the beginning of a new age: the age of kubipan (kubi = neck).

Feeling it our mission to keep Japan up to date with the latest hip-hop fashion, we called upon our own Mr. Satoh to model the basics of kubipan for our Japanese readers who are interested in trying it themselves.

However, we soon realized how foolish we were to believe such a challenging new style could be easily manipulated.Read More

It’s said that man has been using umbrellas to shield himself from the rain for roughly 4000 years. Over this time, the basic structure of the umbrella has never deviated far from the convenient, hand-held device we use even to this day.

However, ever visionaries of the future, the Koreans have taken inspiration from the limitless possibilities of space to bring us a new form of umbrella that surpasses the bounds of human invention. They have brought us…the UFOCAP. Read More

REAL-F is a Japanese company that claims it is “pursuing a ‘real’ that exceeds the real.” While it’s hard to come up with a tangible image of what that could mean, the company has indeed succeeded in creating a mask that is so realistic we’re not sure we want to see anything that exceeds it.

Using a technology developed in-house called 3 Dimension Photo Form (3DPF), the folks at REAL-F will take multiple high-resolution images of your face from different angles and imprint them on a vinyl chloride resin mold. The mask, officially known as “The Real Mask,” is so detailed that it even your blood vessels, pores, and iris details will appear on the final product.Read More

On September 17 an exhibition showcasing the new product collaboration between fashion brand Gucci and manga artist Hiroki Araki, known worldwide for his ongoing manga Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure, opened at the GUCCI store in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The event is being held to commemorate Gucci’s 90th anniversary. Read More

An apparently unwitting weather forecaster walked into the WZTV studio in Zhejiang Province, China wearing a T-shirt bearing arguably the most offensive (and versatile) word in the English language.

The censors slumbered and studio personnel allowed the young woman to give her cheerful report of the day’s weather with said word emblazoned across her chest above an angry and possibly homicidal cousin of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh.

Last year our veteran, cat-loving reporter Hidenori Satou informed readers of our Japanese site that he was accepting applications from potential girlfriends. There was no response. Undaunted, the 38-year-old vowed that this summer he would accomplish what he had failed to the last by giving his rapidly aging appearance a makeover. These past few months Mr. Sato has tried out several hip and fresh hairstyles, and, as a result, was able to accomplish a metamorphosis that we had not thought possible. But was he able to get a girlfriend? Read More

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is one of the longest running manga in Japan, and is well-known throughout the country for always having novel ideas and audacious stories. Now entering its eighth story arc, the manga has had more characters than you could count on your fingertips.

When going to get a new hair cut, some men may have trouble finding the right words to describe the kind of hairstyle they are going for, and often don’t know themselves.

One man, wondering what to do with eight years worth of hair, decided to leave his head in the hands of 10 different stylists by restricting himself to the simple phrase: “I’ll leave it to you.”Read More

Near the end of March it was announced that Japan had officially entered the rainy season. As the days get hotter and the showers come and go many of us tend to take refuge inside until the sun comes out to stay.

Yet there is no need to succumb to melancholy in this fickle weather! For even if you happen to get caught someday in the rain, we’ve found several umbrellas that can make the rainy season a little more fun. Read More

Some older Japanese women wear their school uniforms well after they’ve graduated high school in an attempt to make themselves look younger. After all, nothing screams youthful innocence in Japan like a sailor outfit. Eventually, however, everyone reaches an age where “youthful innocence” is better read as “pitiful desperation.”

But if you adults out there are still looking for an excuse to strut about in your old high school uniform, we have news for you: Ramen Shop Takanashi in Yokohama offers free ramen to customers over 30 who enter the shop wearing a schoolgirl outfit. Yes, even men. Read More